Christopher’s Journey: Why The Real World Cast Member Chose To Leave The Mormon Church

Having been raised in a very strict LDS (Mormon) home, I had always been taught that MTV was the primary purveyor of filth and wickedness on cable television.

And Real World? There was no greater evil. “Homosexuality, AIDS, sex, drugs, drinking…it’s a wonder they even permit such things to be on TV”, I remember my parents saying when I first asked them about TV’s oldest and most notorious reality show.

You can imagine the look on their faces when, years later, I dropped out of Brigham Young University (the foremost private Mormon college in the country), told them I was pansexual, moved to NYC and promptly accepted a spot on Season 31 of Real World: Go Big or Go Home.

“Go big or go home” had special meaning to me. For me, it literally meant: “Go big,” or you will be forced to return to the life you have sacrificed everything to escape from. “Go big,” or live with the knowledge that giving up your family, your community